"What a rotten swamp. My fur's all moldy. Can't you find a better place to open the door?"
I pretended not to hear the silly cat's complaints, but I was in an equally bad mood. My boots were filled with dirty water, and my entire body was drenched.
Ever since we entered this dimension, this stinky rainwater never seemed to stop. Apart from feeling disgusted, I also felt nauseous.
Just a while ago, we had been walking in a hot and humid forest. But when we came back to our senses, we found ourselves in a swamp filled with death. Traveling through the death swamp of the Chaos Abyss was an incredible test of one's experience and judgment.
"And these damned black frog demons and snake demons. Can't they just take a break? Are they even giving me a chance to rest?"
I casually grabbed a tongue that suddenly shot out of the water and tore it apart. The croaking black frog demon was torn apart, and then I conveniently kicked the corpse back into the swamp. I hadn't been able to take two steady steps on the way here.
If this was a slightly more "civilized" level, any creature with intelligence level 3 or higher wouldn't be so foolish as to come here to die after you proved your strength through slaughter and fresh blood.
And for these swamp magical creatures that thought with their own bodies, it was already a type of luck to be able to find prey in this hot and humid rainforest. Their instincts of hunger and their warlike nature after demonization would drive them to attack everything before them.
In this swamp forest, the most dangerous part wasn't that the prey was difficult to deal with. It was that the prey were all experts at survival. They could camouflage, dive, hide in the mud, set traps, and so on. There were countless tricks up their sleeves. There were all sorts of strange-looking creatures in the treetops and swamp.
The great majority of swamp creatures were cold-blooded. Perhaps their desire for slaughter and hot food wasn't as great as that of pure demons, but as long as there was a chance, how could they possibly pass up on food?
Snake demons, crocodiles, demonic lizardmen, bull demons, frog demons, demonic mosquitoes, and poison fog bats. These weren't particularly strong magical creatures, but they all had one thing in common: they were all sly and lived in groups. Their intelligence could only be described as stupid in the mortal plane, but as hunters that had lived in this area for countless years, they were incredibly sly.
A tongue suddenly stuck out of the mud, a snake demon disguised as a tree trunk, and a seemingly flat patch of grass would actually sink into a deep pit. As we walked, the swamp residents warmly welcomed us in their own ways.
Every forest, every swamp, and every pool could be hiding dangerous hunters.
The torrential rain blurred my vision and hearing. The stench of the magical forest and swamps blocked my sense of smell. The magic of the Abyss made my intuition unreliable. In such an area, experience was far more important than power level.
Even a SemiGod Knight could be lured into a bottomless swamp by a group of low-level frogs. An archmage could be devoured by a magical snake that suddenly leapt out from underground. Even the most experienced thief could be dragged into the deep waters of the swamp by the lizardmen who were expert trappers.
Concealment and hunting were the rules of survival in the Swamp Demon Realm from the 74th to the 78th levels of the Abyss.
"My luck is so bad. I would rather be teleported to the Bloody Battlefield. At least I can talk to a group of demons that I can communicate with."
The enemies here were among the weakest in the Chaos Abyss. Any novice adventurer who came here would be considered lucky as they would be able to gradually get used to the dangers of the magical creatures of the Chaos Abyss. But for us, we had just been enjoying life in the mortal plane with a clear sky. Now, we would have to experience the dampness and mud of the swamps. This was definitely the worst possible outcome.
I stayed around Starwood City for more than two months. Not a single one of those bastards had come. Although I knew that they were probably busy with something else, I got sick of practicing my swordsmanship, so I decided to leave early by myself.
"Meet up at the Dragontail Bar in the Ash Furnace, the 100th level of the Chaos Abyss. I'll wait for two more months at most."
I left this message with Harloys and left first with Harloys.
"Didn't you hear that Eliza was about to arrive? You're so promiscuous that you don't know how to face your decent girlfriend, so you left early?"
"Silly cat, I heard that cat meat hotpot is quite nutritious. It's perfect for dispelling the cold …"
I looked at Harloys in satisfaction as I casually killed a foolish demon frog that had been waiting for me to step on it. As expected, this demon frog with a large mouth was completely useless. Did it really think that its three-meter-tall body would be able to hide from my senses?
Traveling alone in the Chaos Abyss seemed rather reckless, but it was actually no different from traveling together.
Dimensional teleportation was the transfer of coordinates between two dimensions. If both sides created a dimensional teleportation portal and connected it to each other, it would be a precise point-to-point teleportation. Right now, we were the only ones with a dimensional teleportation portal, so there would definitely be some errors in teleportation. It was highly likely that the teleportation portal would be at the center of the teleportation portal.
Since we would most likely be separated in the end, there wouldn't be much of a difference in going there earlier.
Right now, I still didn't know which level I was on. After all, those snake monsters couldn't even speak the demon language properly. However, I guessed that I was somewhere in the 70th level. Back when I contacted Sophocles the Deceiver, I was on the other side of a swamp.
"If I'm lucky, I'll be able to leave this damned swamp after going down one level. If I'm unlucky, I'll have to go down at least four levels. That means I'll have to spend at least a month in a mortal's swamp."
The Chaos Abyss wasn't exactly the same. In fact, it could be said that every level of the Chaos Abyss was similar to a level in a tower. It was more accurate to say that it was an independent dimension. If one investigated the origins of the Chaos Abyss, it was likely that the Chaos Abyss truly was a fragment of another world that had been demonized into the Chaos Abyss.
The Chaos Abyss was known to be bottomless. Actually, it was impossible to say just how many levels there were in the Chaos Abyss. However, there were definitely seven or eight hundred levels. The great majority of demons lived in the first six hundred levels. The lower one went, the more broken and dangerous the dimensional passages would become. Dimensional cracks would also appear everywhere. Nobody would be willing to go to a place of certain death for no reason.
The map of the Chaos Abyss and the dimensional levels would also change. An unstable dimensional passage might become stable, or a dimension might suddenly vanish.
The most commonly accepted theory was that the will of the Chaos Abyss would create new Chaos Abyss every day. New Chaos Abyss planes would be born every once in a while. The will of the Chaos Abyss viewed these planes as worthless, and they would be tossed into the endless void along with their residents.
Without the guidance of the Chaos Abyss, it would be nearly impossible to find someone in the Chaos Abyss. As long as I was careful and kept a low profile, I doubted that the Chaos Abyss Lords would be able to find me in a short period of time.
"Let's find a place to rest."
The silly cat split into more than ten clones and transformed into swifts that went off in various directions. I also retracted my Aura of Ice.
Along the way, I maintained the lowest-level Aura of Ice. Perhaps this wouldn't be able to kill those annoying demons, but it would allow me to know where they were. The side effect was that I wouldn't be able to erase the traces of ice that I left behind in the Chaos Abyss for a short period of time. It was possible that I would be tracked down, and it was also possible that I would attract the attention of other powerful demons.
That was because I wasn't a professional Legend-ranked thief (I wouldn't dare to enter the Chaos Abyss without being a Legend-ranked thief). This price in exchange for not being ambushed was completely worth it.
"Tsk, there's a black dragon nest less than three kilometers in front of you. It would seem that those lizardmen ambushers that suddenly appeared today didn't die for nothing. At the very least, they almost successfully lured you into a trap. Ha, you've become quite famous in this area, Lizardmen Harvester."
I felt rather helpless. Most of the residents here didn't have their own written language or language. The lizardmen and snake demons could be considered to be more intelligent. At the very least, they knew how to build houses and villages. And so, I often went to find them to take shelter from the rain, ask for directions, and "borrow" houses and beds to sleep in.
Perhaps it was because there was a problem with communicating with them, or perhaps they wanted to taste fresh meat from the mortal plane. I clearly told them in the demon language that I would pay them, but in the end, they probably ended up … Cough, I probably accidentally went overboard. They were the ones who came up with the lizardmen Harvester as well. That was such a weak nickname.
"There's a lizardmen village about ten kilometers to the left. Today's assassins probably came from there. Should we go 'ask' them for directions?"
As expected of the silly cat. She had already grasped my thoughts. But today, we had a better choice.
"… That dragon nest that's supposed to be a trap is closer."
"Yep. A dragon nest is much more luxurious than a lizardmen village. It'll be more comfortable to sleep in, and there'll be treasures to take. Let's rob that place tonight. "
"No, how could we possibly rob someone? I just want to ask for directions. At the very least, a highly intelligent dragon should know which level of the Chaos Abyss we're in, as well as where the passageway to the next level is."
"… And then rob someone along the way?"
"No, even if it's an evil black dragon, we won't rob it. We're just asking for directions and staying there for the night."
"… Then, it'll attack you, and you'll defend yourself and kill it. It'll be best if you don't end up robbing it. Why go through so much trouble? "
"… Do you know how cats die? Harloys, you know too much."
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